“Artisans still largely seem to be regarded as the underdogs of the engineering trade; however, they have to practically apply engineering designs, think on their feet and make decisions on the spot to reduce downtime in production-driven environments and keep safety in mind at the same time.”

“Employers looking for competent artisans capable of all this and more should demand a Red Seal Section 13 from Olifantsfontein qualification as part of the job requirements. A Red Seal candidate has had the proper training required to work in the sometimes dangerous environments associated with this trade where limbs even lives are lost and, because of this, does not have to be trained from scratch. This saves the employer both time and money,” Gordon explains.

Red Seal artisans have both practical and theoretical experience as a result of completing a four-year apprenticeship, as well as a stringent written trade test. This ensures that they are highly skilled and, as such, in great demand. In fact, South African Artisans are frequently poached to work in foreign markets, where their skills are rated on a par with those of engineers and gets remunerated accordingly. This being said transferring of knowledge and skills to the newly qualified artisans is made impossible.

While other local Artisan training programs do exist, such as the government Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA) program, Gordon warns that employers prefer Red Seal Section 13 from Olifantsfontein trade tested before 2000 credentials.

“The quality of the SETA training is not sufficient for these candidates to be employed straight away. In my experience, employers always take the Red Seal Section 13 Olifantsfontein candidate over the Seta-trained candidate, even if the latter has more years of working experience,” she says.

The flipside is that employers are expected to pay skilled artisans appropriately. These candidates are able to work as higher-level artisans and, because of the scarcity of their skills in South Africa, should be paid market- related salaries.